The name combines mosh (mung bean) with khurda/xo'rda (a thin pottage or porridge), i.e. a mung-bean porridge. An everyday household soup across Bukhara and Samarkand, cooked alike by Sunni Tajik-Uzbeks and the local Bukharan Jews; mung beans keep well, cook easily and feed a crowd, making it a staple winter food of the Silk Road oases. The mung-bean-to-rice ratio is commonly about 1:1, giving a thicker result than the soupier Tashkent mastava.
Bukhara's Lyabi-Hauz Old House serves mosh khurda every Friday for 22,000 som a bowl. Bukharan-Jewish version uses chicken not lamb on Shabbat; the convalescent version is thinned with extra zardob whey and served with no spice.
Thick green-gray porridge, mung beans collapsed, rice grains soft but distinct, lamb shoulder cubes tender. Cumin and dill dominate the aroma; suzma yogurt swirled in at table turns it pale. Eats heavier than mastava, lighter than dimlama.
Mung beans soaked 4 hours, simmered 90 minutes alone until they begin to break — then rice added with lamb stock, 25 more minutes. Beans must split before rice; reversed order leaves rice gummy and beans hard. Cumin tempered in lamb fat as the finishing oil.
Variations
Bukharan standard (lamb-and-cumin), Bukharan-Jewish chicken version, Tajik aash-e moshobinjon (with herbs), Khorezm pumpkin-mosh-khurda (autumn), thin convalescent version with no chili.
On the Palate
Where Mosh Khurda sits in the Uzbek flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6
How it's made
5 steps · 25 min active + 2 hours 50 min waiting
- 1120 min
Soak 200 g mung beans 2 hr; drain.
Watch outSimmer the mung beans on their own until the skins split and they start to slump — only then does the rice go in; add rice too early and the beans stay hard while the rice turns gummy.
- 212 min
Brown 400 g cubed lamb in 30 ml oil; add 1 chopped onion + 1 grated carrot.
Watch outBrown the lamb cubes until the edges catch color and stick a little — that stuck-on browning is the whole flavor base, since there's no stock.
- 310 min
Add 200 g rice + mung beans + 2 L water + 1 tbsp cumin + salt; bring to boil.
- 450 min
Reduce heat; simmer covered 50 min until grains and beans are tender.
Watch outKeep the lid on and the heat low so it barely bubbles; it's done when both grains and beans crush soft against the spoon — rushing on high scorches the bottom.
- 53 min
Finish with chopped dill; serve hot.
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